Despite the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s policy to reduce the importation of chicken to save the struggling local poultry industry, farmers say challenges persist.
The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers says local poultry farmers still incur losses as consumers choose cheap frozen chicken dumped on the market over the broilers produced in Ghana.
The poultry farmers are not interested in producing broilers because they are not competitive in terms of pricing with the imported ones.
The President of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, Victor Oppong Adjei, disclosed this yesterday in Kumasi during the Celebration of World Egg Day.
The Celebration of World Egg Day offers a unique opportunity to help raise awareness on the benefits of eggs.
It is celebrated globally on the second Friday in October each year.
The day was established at the Vienna 1996 conference. For centuries, eggs have played a major role in feeding families around the globe.
It also draws the attention of policy makers, implementers and stakeholders in the sector to fashion out more proactive ways of up scaling funding, production and consumption of eggs.
The Global theme for this year’s celebration is: “A Great Nutritional Eggsperience”: The National celebration in Kumasi was preceded with floating throughout the major principal streets including Suame roundabout,Bantama, Kejetia, Adum, Asafo and finally converged at Heroes Park near Babayara Sports stadium.
The occasion saw Microfinance and Small Loans Centre, (MASLOC$, disbursed a total of 114 thousand Ghana Cedis as loans to 114 Women in Poultry Value Chain to expand their businesses.
The Beneficiaries of the loans were given GH¢1,000 each and the loan will be paid back in six months period with one per-cent interest of the loan.
Addressing the various groups in the Poultry value chain, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, Dr. Boris Baidoo urged farmers to produce enough chicken to feed demand to stop the importation of eggs into the country.
The President of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, Victor Oppong expressed concern about huge eggs importation into the country despite government flagship program dubbed rearing for food and job to reduce the importation of foreign eggs.
The Country Head in-charge of Amplifies Project Ghana, Ligaya Diaz, said her three years working with the Poultry industry has yielded positive results and has therefore urged them to collaborate strongly to make the industry more robust.
The United States Department of Agriculture in-charged of Ghana Poultry Project, Carianne De Boer commended the Poultry industry in Ghana.
Story filed by Razak Baba
